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Duluth marketing outfit expands into social-media journalism

By Candace RenallsForum News Service

Posted:
04/28/2014 12:01:00 AM CDT

Updated:
04/28/2014 06:38:11 PM CDT

The glassed-in conference room at aimClearâ s offices in downtown Duluth will be the location for a weekly podcast about online marketing strategies and life in general once aimClearâ s new multi-media production studio is launched in coming months. 2012 file / News Tribune

His ideas flow like an erupting volcano, his cyber savvy beyond most people's grasp.

And his excitement?

Uncontainable.

At any time, it's hard to keep up with the energetic Marty Weintraub, founder and CEO of aimClear, a fast-growing online marketing agency in Duluth known for its innovative social-media-marketing strategies.

But it's especially hard to keep up with Weintraub when he's embarking on his next innovation.

Like now.

Weintraub already has created one of the coolest, hippest work spaces in Duluth, on the second floor of 9 W. Superior St., one of downtown's oldest buildings. There, a staff of 19 specializes in demographic targeting for clients that include Intel Corp., Tektronix and Martha Stewart.

Marty Weintraub, owner of aimClear, which does targeted online marketing, is building a multimedia production studio to do social media journalism at his office in Duluth. (Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com)

"We can target people and follow them on the Internet," Weintraub said. "Everybody has the capability, but we're really good at it, because we were first."

Now Weintraub -- who owns aimClear with his wife, Laura -- is embarking on another first. He's expanding to the building's 5,000-square-foot third floor for a plunge into what he describes as "social journalism."

Weintraub is building a television studio up there.

He's including a state-of-the-art video production facility, with a 26-by-8-foot raised sound stage plus room for an audience of 50 people. The production area will take up one-third of the floor. But the whole floor, with its open layout, high ceiling and desks on wheels, will be considered a potential set.

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The investment is substantial for the seven-year-old company even with revenue of $4.6 million in 2013. The more than $500,000 in construction costs are being shared with building owner Vonrock LLC. But aimClear's costs will be hundreds of thousands of dollars more for the needed equipment, furniture and salaries, Weintraub said.

For starters, Weintraub is looking to hire one or two television journalists who are videographer, writer, video editor, reporter, storyteller and on-camera presenter all rolled into one. He said he'll pay more than local TV does. He plans to hire the first in May and expects to have a broadcast team of three in a year.

But aimClear won't be doing standard newscasts, nor making commercials, infomercials or music videos, Weintraub said.

"It's really about creating video content for clients," said Weintraub, who has a television background. "It's content for ourselves and our clients."

"I want to go to Darfur and cover the climate change conference for a client," he said. "We'll be able to construct a CNN segment if we want."

And what they produce will end up on social networking sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Vine, Reddit and Vimeo, he said.

Besides creating the targeted content, they'll teach others how to do it.

"We make more money advising others than doing it ourselves," Weintraub said.

But first up will be a weekly podcast -- "Live from WTF" -- for aimClear's blog. WTF is their large incubator-like glassed-in conference room. The initials stand for "What the ...," well, use your imagination.

"We'll talk about the online universe and about life and about online marketing tactics," Weintraub said of the podcast.

Work to convert the third floor -- which sat empty and unused for decades -- began in early March and should be done in three weeks, said project superintendent Greg Jarvis of RJS Construction.

RJS also did the earlier conversion of the second floor into aimClear's cutting-edge lifestyle workspace reminiscent of Google's flexible work campus. It includes an open design with vibrant colors, a gourmet kitchen and workout area with treadmill desks.

Wagner Zaun Architecture in Duluth designed both.

Like the second floor, the third floor combines a contemporary industrial style with 19th century architecture.

The structure was built in 1884 to house the Silberstein & Bondy Co., a high-end mercantile store.

While Weintraub said aimClear is the first agency of its kind to build a TV studio and hire broadcast reporters, he thinks more will follow.

"Lots of other companies will do this, too," he said. "There's demand for it in our business. You'll see more hiring TV journalists."

Employees work in the aimClear office in downtown Duluth that boasts a contemporary open design and bold colors coupled with the original brick walls and the tin ceiling seen above the industrial ceiling grid. Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com